Chapter 1574: First Close Encounter With Xia Chen (2)

Su Yu gave a simple explanation of what he saw and drew the symbol out.

Xia Chen was a descendant of a human king and an expert of the ninth epoch. The moment he saw the symbol, he said, "Infernal hibiscus. Yes. This is indeed Control King's symbol, mixed with a flame symbol."

He thought about it and said, "The flame symbol must be related to fire. Someone whose bloodline symbol could be reflected in the descendant of Control King must certainly be someone almost as strong as Control King as well. Heavenly Fire of the five elemental race, Blood Fire of the devil race, Raging Fire of the divine race, Fire Fairy of the immortal race, and Fiery Phoenix of the phoenix race. These are all individuals capable of such a feat."

He looked at Su Yu and asked, "You still don't know where to look, right?"

"Yeah."

"It's simple." Xia Chen said, "This traitor must be well-versed in fire."

"Fiery Sea King? But he's dead."

Wan Tiansheng said, "Don't forget we have another Invincible good at fire manipulation."

"Heavenly Forge King?"

Su Yu blanked out. That shouldn't be the case, right? But it was also true that each weaponsmith was also someone proficient in fire manipulation.

Xia Chen said, "That's not necessarily true. Let me finish. The traitor has the bloodlines of both Control King and a flame-related king. Control King was someone proficient in the path of interminable hell. He specialized in sealing his opponents."

"Heavenly Seal King!"

That was Wan Tiansheng's answer. Su Yu's heart thumped.

Heavenly Seal King. Or Heavenly Forge King. Both were potential suspects.

Xia Chen continued, "I can only provide you with some clues. I don't know more than that. The main goal of this person is unrelated to the human race. Rather, the multiple character faction is the sole goal. This person is both a spy and a killer."

Su Yu asked, "The Culture Tomb has remained in Great Xia for so many years. Why didn't the traitor snatch it from Great Xia?"

"Xia Wushen has been keeping an eye on the Culture Tomb."

Xia Chen explained, "The Culture Tomb has never left Great Xia before. Thus, the traitor would not dare to make any attempt on it unless he was confident he could handle Xia Wushen. Additionally, the Culture Tomb isn't something just anyone can snatch. Someone not from the multiple character faction won't be able to take it away easily."

Was that the case?

Su Yu never realized that. He only knew that it had been quite easy for both him and Chen Yong to take the Culture Tomb around.

"Just what is the function of the Culture Tomb? Providing character techniques? Is that all?"

"Of course not." Xia Chen said, "The Culture Tomb has many functions. The most important aspect of the Culture Tomb is the core. The core was forged from a major character of Culture King. Thousands of his students used everything they had to seal their character techniques in the tomb as well. They did this to both keep the legacy alive and prepare for Culture King's resurrection in the future.

"I don't know more than that, but I only know that Culture King might be able to return. Or he's not even dead in the first place. Thus, the Xia Family has been guarding his tomb for generations."

Su Yu rolled his eyes and said, "What's the point? Fine, even if you find that worthy of doing, but is this why you claimed that the tomb is inauspicious? Because someone is targeting it?"

"That's not all." Xia Chen sighed and said, "Culture King's enemy is only one of the reasons. Secondly, the Culture Tomb is also the key for a treasure vault. Some of the surviving fossils know this as well. And the treasure vault is related to the Human Emperor's Palace on the ninth level of the Luminous Domain Mansion.

"Culture King had his own residence on the ninth level as well. It was said that numerous treasures were left there. Since the Culture Tomb was forged from his main character, one might be able to open the entrance to his residence with the tomb. One might even gain the ability to freely explore the Human Emperor's Palace with the tomb. Culture King had an incomparably high status during the ancient past. He could move freely in the Human Emperor's Palace."

Su Yu was surprised to hear that. He asked, "That's surprising to hear. Was the Human Emperor still around when the Culture King died?"

Xia Chen chucked, "Do you think the Human Emperor would covet Culture King's treasures? The easiest way to not succumb to tempation is to not allow the temptation to exist. The Human Emperor had stayed away from the palace after Culture King's disappearance."

Su Yu said, "Therefore, the tomb is essentially a lure to attract numerous assassination attempts?"

"Yes."

"That's why it's inauspicious?"

"Yes." Xia Chen said, "The first reason alone is already very troublesome. I suspect the enemy has a way of tracking the tomb. Thus, anyone holding the tomb will constantly be exposed to the enemy's tracking."

"Is that so?"

Su Yu shook his head. That didn't seem to be the case. The Culture Tomb had been his possession for quite some time, even before he left the Human Realm...

No, wait. It had stayed with Old Wan for an extended period of time back when they were building the fake ruin. It had only been returned to him after the battle. At the time, he had ended his disguise as a Heavenly Hunt Pavilion member.

Wan Tiansheng said, "Your brain must have been affected by death qi. Be careful."

Su Yu asked in astonishment, "What do I need to be careful about? I don't even have the tomb anymore."

"..."

Bullshit!

The kid was clearly lying!

Wan Tiansheng was rendered speechless. Look at the kid's expression. Look at how the kid was speaking. If Wan Tiansheng wasn't the one who had personally handed the tomb to the kid, he would have fallen for it. Why was the kid acting when he was the one who had handed the tomb to the kid?

Xia Chen said, "That's all I know. As for the rest, I either don't know or can't say. Do you have more questions?"

Su Yu hurriedly asked, "Would the old fossils appear in each final war?"

"Yeah." Xia Chen said, "He Tu should know that as well."

He Tu lazily said, "So what if I know that? Simply put, a bunch of old fossils are in a standoff somewhere we don't know. You can call that place a higher realm. The Allheaven Battlefield was meant as a training ground for the young geniuses. It isn't that high of a realm. However, it has always shown the young geniuses more care. That was why the Luminous Domain Mansion was built there."

"A genius will eventually grow into maturity. Thus, a thousand years after each activation, some old fossils would appear."

"Are these old fossils above the Daofuse Realm?"

Su Yu was surprised to hear that.

"Not really."

He Tu explained, "A Daofuse is a supreme existence. Someone like that can leave easily, but returning is much harder. For example, a Daofuse who has grown in the Allheaven Battlefield or the Myriad Realms could stay behind without leaving. But upon leaving, the laws would prevent them from returning easily."

"Tiangu has been unwilling to leave, making him one of the strongest in the Myriad Realms."

Su Yu said, "In short, all the human experts died during the previous epoch?"

𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"Many died." Xia Chen sighed and said, "The Hundred Battle King was too monstrous. It had been too many years since a human capable of reaching the level of the ancient human kings appeared. He was the first to reach that level in nine epochs. Thus, the old fossils of humanity had placed all their bet on him during the ninth epoch, including those from the ancient past or previous epochs. They gambled everything on him."

The result of that gamble was clear for all to see. It had failed. Humanity had been defeated. The Hundred Battle King had died. That resulted in an unprecedentedly weak human race during the tenth epoch.

"If he was so strong, who killed him? Wasn't he the first to reach the level of the ancient human kings? How could someone so powerful die so easily? Were there such existences among the old fossils as well?"

Xia Chen shook his head, "I don't know, but I doubt so. There might be some at the level of ancient marquises, but not kings. Furthermore, only humans could become kings during the ancient past. The other races had never managed to produce such experts. Their so-called kings only started appearing after the ancient past.

"I don't know how the Hundred Battle King died. Either he was killed in an encirclement or he was killed by a trap. At the time, I had yet to affirm my dao. Thus, I didn't know too much. By the time I affirmed my dao, the battle had ended."

The final battle back then was too intense for a mere weakling like him to join. Thus, he was able to stay behind and focus on his dao affirmation. But by the time he finished, all human experts had died and the Allheaven Battlefield had shut down yet again.

When he emerged from the ruin, he found that not a single human Invincible remained in the Human Realm. What was humanity supposed to do in that situation? Thus, he decided to wait in the ruin.

Su Yu was left quite speechless. How did someone as strong as the Hundred Battle King die, resulting in a great defeat for humanity? How useless. Whatever.

Su Yu was more concerned about the human traitor. Thankfully, he had gained some leads here. There were only two suspects left. Heavenly Forge King and Heavenly Seal King. In a way, he was related to both.

He had learned many of his weaponsmithing skills from the Hundred Dao Pagoda. That was a legacy of the Heavenly Forge King. Furthermore, his twenty-sixth character came from Heavenly Seal King.

He had not used that character much as he had better options in combat. Furthermore, he wasn't too proficient in using a sealing-related character. Thus, he had not done much with that character.

Su Yu had no other questions, but Wan Tiansheng wasn't done. He asked, "Senior Xia, was the Three Body Method the only path to dao affirmation in the ancient past?"

"No. But the other methods have essentially been severed after the ancient past." Xia Chen explained, "The laws are preventing the other paths from succeeding. Nobody knows if these laws were designed by the Human Emperor or the assembly. It's very difficult to overcome the laws, but if one could do it and achieve dao affirmation through a different path, one would be stronger than the ones who had used the Three Body Method."

"Is there any hope for me to achieve dao affirmation?"

Yes. He had yet to affirm his dao even though he had killed multiple Invincibles.

Xia Chen studied Wan Tiansheng for a bit before answering, "I'm not sure about your dao. After all, I also cultivate the Three Body Method."

He was no ancient past expert.

Suddenly, Su Yu recalled something and asked, "Is there a suppressive force in the Human Realm?"

"Yes. But it can't be opened!" Xia Chen answered, "Culture King himself placed the formation to seal it. The formation was rarely touched after it was laid down. Eventually, Culture King vanished. Apart from him, nobody knew the way to activate it. Perhaps some knew, but at the time, nobody cared. During the earlier epochs, some tried to reactivate the suppressive force. Eventually, some rumors appeared that only Invincibles walking Culture King's path could do it."

Su Yu exhaled deeply. So there was really a suppressive force in the Human Realm. And it was really related to the multiple character faction. In a way, this had proven that Ye Batian had not died pointlessly.

"Senior Xia, do you know the way to affirm dao through willpower cultivation?"

Wan Tiansheng only asked about cultivation. He did not seem too interested in the other matters.

Xia Chen smiled bitterly and said, "No. I'm not even a pure willpower cultivator. My willpower cultivation was stuck at the ninth-stage Sunmoon Realm. Eventually, I gave up and broke through using the Three Body Method."

Even Xia Chen was forced to use the Three Body Method to affirm his dao.

Wan Tiansheng was disappointed to hear that. He said, "I thought you would walk the willpower path as the first principal."

Xia Chen said helplessly, "That is almost impossible after Culture King's disappearance. The willpower dao affirmation of humanity is different from the myriad races. Strictly speaking, the myriad races only cultivate the Three Body Method. They merely have a method of strengthening their characters more than usual to claim that they are willpower Invincibles. But the essence of their dao affirmation has always been the Three Body Method."

"For humans, we can't push our characters beyond the ninth-stage Sunmoon Realm. This is the difference between us and the myriad races."

Su Yu and Wan Tiansheng looked at each other helplessly. Clearly, not even Xia Chen had a way of achieving dao affirmation through willpower cultivation.